If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Bees being ejected from hive.

Question, Few week old Nuc hive in 10 frame deep. Bees are strong Collecting pollen and nectar, queen laying. Notice a few days in a row, Bees hauling out other bees and ejecting them from the hive like a bouncer at a club. Mostly young girls but some older bees as well. The land on the ground and appear to be making a drunken crawl away from the hive. Captured a few and check them under magnification. No mites or wing damage visible. they crawl about four or five feet from the hive and die. Haven't noticed any robbing as I'm told it's a dramatic event that you'll notice easily. I'm thinking it's just weak young bees being thrown out with the older ones being chalked up as old foragers past their prime. My count is about a dozen or dozen in a half a day. Any ideas.

Re: Bees being ejected from hive.

Re: Bees being ejected from hive.

I think Vance G is correct. Dieing that quickly, after crawling only 4 or 5 feet, sounds like pesticide. If not a pesticide, my second guess would be one of the many virsuses that bees carry. Tracheal mites are seldom seen anymore unless the bees are from some of the Aussie stock that was being sold a few years ago.

Re: Bees being ejected from hive.

Follow up:
Yesterday still with the bees crawling away and croaking. Had 1:1 on them, but they didn't even finish a half a quart in a weeks time,

I opened the colony to put a few SHB traps a bought inside the hive, Everything looked pretty good, tons of bees doing their thing, didn't see the queen, but i was only in for a short time. Noticed a few larvae discarded on the front porch of the hive but maybe two. This morning looked in on them, looked strange. about a dozen bees on the top cover just huddled together seemed tired. Decided i needed to open them up and see inside.

Soon i as opened the top cover i knew something was wrong. Sure enough, they are gone. Left behind some sick bees, some foragers still coming back but 90% are gone. Dead bees found on the screened bottom board and some still on the frames but few and they dont look good.

Oh well, Seems like a pesticide thing or CCD. Dont know what to do now. I don't any agriculture in the area to blame, in fact my property connects to a huge nature preserve and swamp. Guy a bought the bees from has other hives in the area with no trouble. I dont want to get another colony only for them to get into the same pesticide as these guys did.

I'm not a quitter so i'll try again. If I can get bees this late or in the spring.